


I Aear cân ven na mar (The Sea calls us home)

by patroklassy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action, Blood and Gore, Crossover, M/M, established eruri, snk/lotr crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 00:54:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7663951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patroklassy/pseuds/patroklassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Middle-Earth is plagued by titans. Erwin and Levi, the highest-ranked Wardens of Lorien, go to the aid of the other Free Peoples to fight back against the incursions of Zeke's titan forces.  </p><p>The Battle of the Hornburg is bloody and damn near hopeless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Battle of the Hornburg

**Author's Note:**

> I adore The Lord of the Rings but I'm no expert on the lore surrounding Middle-Earth, and I've taken a lot of liberties with both the LotR and snk pieces of this story anyway. This is a mash-up of the two worlds, so nothing matches up to one or the other completely.  
> All Elvish is from the film trilogy.  
> Also, I hate Nile and it shows. If you like Nile, you probably won't like this.

“Gross.”

Erwin looked to Levi. He was shaking his hand, sprays of blood flying off it. None of it was his own.

The bodies of half a dozen titans lay scattered along the treeline.

“Regroup!” Erwin shouted, watching as his marchwardens fell into place before him. Levi moved to stand at his right shoulder, the captain of this newly-formed patrol. “Lynne, I’m putting you in charge in Levi’s absence,” Erwin continued. “Don’t let titans enter the forest, but only engage if it is absolutely necessary. Another patrol will relieve you at midnight. Levi, come with me.” 

\--

“Who are we waiting for?” Levi asked. He lounged in his chair, running his fingers back and forth along the grain of the table’s wood. “And why’d I have to leave my patrol behind to meet them?”

“You’ve met them before,” Erwin answered. He was pacing. It wasn’t unusual for their visitor to be late, but it was still an annoyance. “You don’t get along.”

“Don’t tell me it’s Hanji.” 

The door flew open and Hanji cried, “ _Levi!_ Is that really you? You look shorter.” The smell of damp earth and wood-smoke washed in with her.

“Really?” Levi said to Erwin, unimpressed. “You invited her? And I’m not shorter, you shitty excuse for a wiz—”

“I invited myself!” Hanji interrupted. She sat herself down beside Levi, who pointedly turned his back on her. “Erwin tells me you’ve been having some titan trouble. It might please you to know that Eren, Mikasa and Armin have not yet perished on their journey into hellfire.” 

“That’s good news,” Erwin said, also taking a seat. “Hanji, you’re my eyes and ears out there. What have you seen? What have you heard?”

Hanji immediately lost her mirth. The sudden change in mood was answer enough for Erwin: the news of Eren, Mikasa and Armin would be of little consolation compared to everything else.

“Osgiliath has been lost,” Hanji started. “The last garrison has retreated to the Rammas Echor. Zeke now looks to capture Minas Tirith. He’s perfecting his work, sending out more resilient titans, more intelligent titans, capable of strategical thought. These titans—” She paused.

“Yes?”

“They’re made from elves, Erwin.” 

A sick feeling twisted in Erwin’s stomach, but he didn’t react. It hadn’t been hard to suspect—

But it was one thing to suspect, another to have it confirmed.

Levi wasn’t able to keep his composure so completely. He looked to Erwin. “Those titans that killed Petra and the others . . . they had a leader. It spoke, remember? That could have been . . .”

 _. . . one of our own_. 

“It’s bad news,” Hanji continued. “Wherever you look. The only sign of hope we have right now is Eren and his companions.”

“Three kids.” Levi shook his head. “Remind me again what imbecile put three kids in charge of Middle-Earth’s fate?” There was a great deal of bitterness to his voice. It hadn’t been all that long since his old patrol had been wiped out, killed by titans while escorting those same three kids to the river Anduin.

“Eren’s father, Grisha, left the Ring in his son’s possession,” Erwin replied. “Evidently, the Council deemed Eren capable of successfully reaching Mount Doom.”

“The Council _you_ were both a part of.”

“He could never do it on his own. But I believe with the aid of his two companions—”

“I know, I _know._ I just hate it. None of this is right.”

\--

It was only a few days later that Erwin announced, “We ride for Rohan tomorrow.”

Levi leaned against the wall. “What about defending Lothlorien?”

“I haven’t forgotten that.” Erwin stood up to pace. “But the army of the Westfold is fighting titan forces at the Fords of Isen as we speak. From there, Zeke will push his army towards the Hornburg, where defeat could mean Rohan’s destruction as well as that of Gondor. Taking Rohan will give Zeke the opportunity to launch his attack on Minas Tirith from the north-west as well as from Osgiliath. I don’t like the thought of leaving Lothlorien, even if the patrols are left in capable hands. But if Zeke is setting his sights on Rohan, there should be a lull in activity upon our own borders.”

“Okay. Who’s going?”

“Just you and I.”

Levi took a seat, crossing one leg over the other. “Alone?”

“Hardly seems worth it, doesn’t it?”

“That’s an understatement.”

“But you’re an army on your own,” Erwin continued, “and the king of Rohan is still recovering from his illness. And the commander of the Westfold is . . . unsuited to this. The Westfold has already been weakened by a string of raids. The least they need to win this battle is a capable commander.”

“You haven’t led the defence of a fortress in almost a century,” Levi pointed out.

“True, but I’ve got a good memory. You doubt my strategical abilities?”

Levi smiled, a small, grim thing. “I’m not sure anyone could.”

“Good. Gelgar and Nanaba will be interim co-commanders in my absence. We leave at dawn.”

\--

They were not greeted warmly. They were not greeted at all.

“What the hell are you doing here?” were Nile’s first words to Erwin. He looked to Levi. “Befriending dwarves now, too? Do you intend to fraternise with every race of Middle-Earth, Erwin?”

“I realise you’re a worm who never ventures far from his hole,” Levi replied stingingly. “But even a child wouldn’t have the idiocy to mistake me for a dwarf.”

“And ‘fraternising’ with the other races, as you put it, could very well be the only way to fight back against the titans,” Erwin added. 

After a few moments of grinding his teeth, Nile repeated, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“We’re here to fight. We know Zeke has sent an army for the Hornburg.”

“Your concern is appreciated,” Nile said, with no appreciation whatsoever, “but wholly unnecessary. I have the situation under control.”

“You have a plan, then?”

Nile glared. It made Erwin think of his first encounter with him, a young man devoted to his king. It also made him think of Nile’s slow decline, the way his climb to power ruined him.

“Of course I do,” Nile snapped. “I know you, Erwin. You’re not going to just give up and leave, are you? So be it. One of my captains was killed during the assault at the Fords of Isen. You will take over his unit, and that is all you will do.”

“Understood,” Erwin said. “And Levi?”

“Levi?” Nile’s gaze turned to Levi, looking him up and down. “Looks like he could barely hold a sword. He can join your unit. Let the pup stay with its master.”

Levi had the good sense to keep quiet—or more likely he was too furious to speak—but when Nile turned to stride away, he fixed his eyes on Nile’s back and drew a finger across his throat. Erwin stifled his approval.

\--

“You’re not really going to listen to that sorry excuse for a rat?” Levi asked later.

“He’s the commander here. These are his people. If our places were reversed, would we let him take control of our army in Lothlorien?”

“The two situations don’t even compare. Lothlorien’s current commander isn’t a meat-sack with no brain.”

Erwin smiled. He reached out to take Levi’s hand, running his thumb over the knuckles. There was a silver band on Levi’s index finger; Erwin slowly turned it. “I’m touched that you feel that way. But we have to respect his authority here.”

“His _authority_ is going to be Rohan’s downfall.”

Rubbing his free hand across his brow, Erwin said, “I know. He told me his plan. It’s not going to work.”

“So go behind his back. Take over. What can he do?”

“I would. In a heartbeat, I would. I don’t want to see people die unnecessarily. But this is hardly the time to organise a coup, and his soldiers trust him despite his flaws. They wouldn’t follow me if it meant going directly against him. I’m afraid we’re an army of two.”

“Haven’t we always been?”

Erwin let out an amused huff of breath. “I suppose we have. Unfortunately, that’s not much good to us in a situation where we need numbers.”

Levi sighed, leaning his back against the wall of Erwin’s chamber. “So we have no choice. We go with Nile’s plan, and we watch the titans slaughter the entirety of the Westfold. I can’t believe this.”

“We’re not going to be passive. We’ve got some time yet. I’ll do what I can.”

“Do what you can,” Levi repeated. “Yeah. Do that. You’re good at that.”

\--

Rest,” Levi implored, following a step behind Erwin. “We’ve got time. I’ll see to it that everything is taken care of here. I can’t believe that shit-for-brains Nile left all this to you in the first place. When I said ‘do what you can,’ this wasn’t what I had in mind. Commander of the Westfold, my ass.”

“I’ve never encountered another elf with a mouth as filthy as yours.”

“Must be my human half.”

Erwin stopped, turned to Levi. He felt a heaviness about himself, as if his tiredness was tangible. But that didn’t matter. “I’ll rest when we’re done. There’s still so much that needs to be organised. The children and elderly need to be—”

“Taken to the caves, I know.” 

“And all those of fighting age need to be—”

“Armed and briefed, I know that too. I’ll see to it that they’re armed. You can brief them after you’ve rested.”

“The reports—”

“—say that we’ve got time. Sleep, Erwin. This battle’s going to be bad enough as it is. Don’t enter it exhausted.”

Regular reports were flowing down from watchmen, detailing the movements of Zeke’s approaching titan army. It was huge. There was no way the Westfold could ever muster the numbers to match it. And Nile was trying to tackle it like an ordinary siege.

Levi was right; the battle was going to be terrible, and their chances of victory could hardly be slimmer. Erwin knew he should rest. But it was only when Levi tripped him and pulled him into a hold on the ground, and whispered in his ear, “How are slow reflexes like that ever going to keep you alive?” that Erwin finally gave in.

\--

Later, they strode side-by-side through the armoury, watching the ongoing stream of people filing past to collect battered shields and blunt swords, ineffective weapons that had been hauled out of storage for people who didn’t even know how to wield them. Boys and girls barely past fifteen dragged them, the metal too weighty. Old fighters that hung up their own shields years ago tried to hide the way their arms shook.

“Look at these people,” Levi muttered. “Half of them have never even touched a blade before. We can’t just drag children in off farms and expect them to march into battle. An extra hundred untrained and inexperienced soldiers aren’t going to make much of a difference to our chances when our enemy numbers in the thousands.”

“Better to fight for their lives and their loved ones than to be helpless,” Erwin replied, straightening a strap on his armour.  He looked around: the room had stilled, all eyes on him and Levi.

Levi ignored them. “How can they fight for their lives if they don’t know how to fight?”

“Fear will lend them strength,” Erwin said.   

“We don’t even have enough soldiers to defend the dike.”

“We’ll make do with the walls.” 

“All of them will die, Erwin.”

He knew this. He _knew_ this. “Then I shall die as one of them!” Erwin shouted.

Levi didn’t flinch. “Why are you letting them fight?” he asked quietly. “What’s the point?”

“Numbers.” 

“You mean sacrifices.”

Erwin’s voice remained even. “They’ll buy us time. If Rohan is lost, they’ll die anyway. And Nile—”

“Don’t talk to me about Nile.” Levi gave him a long look. But to Erwin’s relief, he nodded at last. “But okay. The bigger picture. I trust you, Erwin.”

\--

“Can you help me?”

Erwin went to Levi, checking the straps of his armour one-by-one. His fingers brushed Levi’s skin and he expected it to be cold, but it was warm. The heat startled him. It reminded him that he and Levi were living things. They were both immortal and not. 

Only violence or unbearably negative emotion could kill them, and sometimes Erwin wondered how either of them was still alive.

He kissed the top of Levi’s head. “Ready?” he asked.

Before Levi could reply, a horn sounded. He looked to Erwin, brows drawn together. “Who the hell is that?”

\--

“Open the gates!” Erwin ordered, and a deep thronging sounded as the Great Gates parted to let a force of cloak-cladded soldiers file through.

Erwin’s heart lifted. Even the sound of Nile barging his way through the gathering crowd didn’t have the power to send it plummeting again.

“Erwin, what’s the meaning of this?” Nile demanded, reaching him. “What do you think you’re doing, authorising the entrance of strangers—”

“Friends.”

“—into my fortress unannounced? They could be spies.”

“They are not spies,” Erwin said. “Have you spent so long indoors you can’t even recognise Dúnedain anymore?” Nile reddened, and Erwin turned his back on him, giving his attention to the Dúnadan chieftain instead. “ _Mae govannen_ , Mike.” He smiled warmly. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You too,” Mike replied, stepping back to look Erwin up and down. Though he was a Dúnadan and Erwin was an elf, Mike stood nearly ten inches taller. “You look well.”

“Hanji told me she had something up her sleeve, but I hadn’t expected this.” Erwin looked out across the Rangers of the North, heavy-cloaked and battle-hardened, an enormous contrast to the ragtag group of people he and Levi had left in the armoury. “How did you manage to muster so many?”

“You know how well-loved the name ‘Erwin Smith’ is among us. They were more than eager to come.” Mike’s eye caught Levi, surprised. “Oh, you’ve recruited hobbits to fight in this battle? I hadn’t realised quite how desperate the situation is.”

Levi bristled. “ _Do I look like I live in a hole in the ground, you—_ ”

“This is Levi,” Erwin interrupted. “Lothlorien’s highest-ranked marchwarden, besides myself. He is a Peredhel who has chosen immortality.”

_Half-Elven._

Mike looked to Erwin and back to Levi, his expression changing: something had registered in his head. “Forgive me, Levi. I recall your name; Erwin has told me great things about you. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

Levi didn’t return the greeting.

“Erwin, I demand—” Nile started.

Erwin ignored him. “Your rangers are a welcome sight,” he said to Mike. “We might actually stand a chance with the aid of fighters like yours.”

“And if not, it will be our honour to die at your side,” Mike replied.

\--

Erwin stood upon the Deeping Wall. He couldn’t see the causeway running forward to meet the north-eastern side of the outer wall, but he knew it was swarmed with titans hefting battering rams to heave against the Great Gates. Somewhere over there—already amongst them, possibly, or still approaching the causeway along the postern path—was Levi.

But Erwin couldn’t think about that now.

He raised his sword. “Tangado a chadad!”

_Prepare to fire._

Large crossbows had been mounted to the southernmost section of the Deeping Wall, where there was no dike to slow the titans’ approach. There were four units stationed upon the wall, sixteen mounted crossbows between them. It wasn’t enough. On the outer wall, where the dike hindered the titans’ approach, Mike and his rangers shot arrows into the eyes and necks of the sparser titans, the damage never fatal, their skills wasted.

“ _Fire!_ ”

The tallest titans loomed close to the Deeping Wall, trying to get a grip to pull themselves up. Thick, heavy arrows thudded into their heads.

“Bring them down!” Erwin ordered. The other captains called similar orders up and down the Wall.

Soldiers furiously turned cranks, winding the ropes connected to the arrows back in, dragging the titans’ upper-bodies down parallel to the top of the wall by their pierced heads, exposing their napes.

“Swords!”

Erwin held his own sword ready, raising it over a titan’s neck. Its hands swiped without aim. Erwin dodged them and brought his sword down to cut out the nape, listening to the thuds and slick sounds of metal through blood ahead of and behind him. Putting a boot to the titan’s head, he cut the bolt free and let it drop to the ground. Soldiers wound the bolts back in to reload.

It was slow and time-consuming. Even during that volley, enough titans appeared by the wall to replace all of those cut down. Some heaved boulders up, either throwing them at the wall from afar or getting close enough to drop them on soldiers’ heads. Erwin was tired of hearing the screaming. Behind him, the sun was lowering.

Their hands were always grabbing. Erwin took a spray of blood to the face as he cut away the fingers trying to reach for him. The soldier beside him was suddenly in the air—more screaming—and being lifted away. The screaming cut off abruptly, the soldier’s body crunched in half. 

“This is going to take too long,” Levi said, appearing at Erwin’s side.

“Levi. How did things go on the causeway?”

“The battering rams shouldn’t be a problem anymore. I dumped them into the stream. And the titans haven’t got any arms left to carry them, anyway.”

“Good work. And the outer wall?”

“Unfortunately the Deeping Stream isn’t deep enough to slow them down—” Levi hacked away another titan hand “—though Helm’s Dike is still keeping the bulk of them back. But some are starting to cause trouble.” He gave Erwin a grim look. “The rangers can do little more than slow them down more without mounted crossbows. The child soldiers are stationed with them,” he added.

“It’s still the safest position. Take over here. I need to speak with Nile. Maybe seeing his plan failing will have rattled some sense into him.”

Turning to make his way towards the northernmost end of the Deeping Wall, Erwin heard Levi take up command behind him: “ _Tangado a chadad!_ ”

\--

He found Nile on the steps joining the Deeping Wall to the outer wall.

“I need to talk to you—” he started.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Nile cut in.

“Your soldiers are dying. I just watched one get bitten in half. He wasn’t the first. What are you going to do when the titans figure out how to get over the dike? The rangers can’t do much to hold them off without more equipment.”

“We haven’t _got_ any more equipment. I told you already—those sixteen mounted crossbows are it.”

Erwin closed his eyes for a moment, letting the frustration flow over him. “Nile, these are _titans._ You can’t keep treating them like a normal enemy. You can’t expect a stronghold to be enough on its own. They don’t starve. They don’t tire. They’re never going to burn out. That army won’t stop until either every last man or titan is dead. Nightfall might slow some, but not all. So don’t stand here and tell me that sixteen mounted crossbows are all you have to fight back with. This isn’t a battle where you can surrender and cut your losses. Zeke doesn’t want to take the Hornburg. He wants to wipe out Rohan.”

“Don’t you think I know all this already?” Nile shot back.

“No,” Erwin said, “I don’t. Can’t you see your plan isn’t working? That it never had a hope of working? Your soldiers are out there losing their lives—” He flung out an arm in the direction of the Deeping Wall “—because you can’t put your pride aside long enough to admit that you need my help.”

“Get back to your unit,” Nile said quietly.

“Nile—”

“I said get back. To. Your unit. This is not your concern.”

“Nor yours, it would seem,” Erwin said coldly. He turned and strode back to his place.  

\--

The first patters of rain began to fall just as the sun made its final dip behind the Thrihyrne. The rain strengthened, forcing Erwin to raise his voice to be heard over the downpour. Rivulets ran down his helmet, dripping constantly from its nose-guard. The same orders rang from his mouth, over and over: _Prepare to fire! Fire! Swords! Pull back! Reload!_ No other words existed anymore.  

The units had dwindled. Unsurprisingly, Erwin’s held out the best. They had Levi with them, stepping in to cut away hands or necks or napes when the bolts didn’t quite hold a titan down. He seemed a phantom, everywhere at once.

But at this rate, all he and Erwin were really doing was postponing the soldiers’ deaths. The army of the Westfold didn’t stand a chance, not like this. The onslaught of rain felt like an omen. The heavens were giving their last salute to Rohan before its fall.

“Erwin.” Nile appeared out of the darkness, a phantom himself. Blood and rain mixed on his armour. His eyes were wide, mouth gaping. “Erwin, I— What do we do? You were right.” He looked out towards the Deeping Coomb, littered as it was with the dark shapes of moving titans, the mass appearing no smaller than it had hours earlier. Something like a guttural cry escaped him. “All my soldiers are going to die.”

“What are you asking of me?”

“Take over. Take full command. Please.” Nile rushed through his words. “Before it’s too late for those left.”

\--

They incurred great losses in the process, but Erwin had the bulk of troops stationed atop the Deeping Wall—and the mounted crossbows they were manning—moved to the outer wall. Mike’s Rangers of the North shifted to the inner wall, their lesser numbers filling the smaller circumference neatly.

\--

“Remove the reinforcements.”

The soldiers looked at Erwin as if he had lost his mind. He couldn’t blame them. Maybe he had.

“Commander, there are fresh titans out there. The Great Gates are barely holding as it is. They’ve pulled up trees to replace the battering rams Captain Levi threw off the causeway.”

“I am aware. You will remove the reinforcements, and you will make your way immediately to the northernmost stairs and mount the outer wall. When the titans breach the Great Gates, they will do so unhindered.”  

\--

“One wall at a time!” Erwin cried. “Inner Wall, prepare to fire!”

\--

“The inner and outer walls are significantly higher than the Deeping Wall,” Erwin had explained to Levi earlier. “High enough that even the napes of the tallest titans should be lower than the walls. Using both the inner and outer walls will allow us to better utilise Mike’s rangers and to fire directly into the titans’ napes, and the height of the walls means the archers should always be firing at a downward angle, so there won’t be a great deal of danger regarding crossfire.”

“So you want to purposefully let the titans into the Hornburg?” Levi had asked.

“I do. We’ll blockade the rear-gate and the postern door. The staircases to the walls are too narrow for the titans to fit into.”

“You realise,” Levi had said, “that once we do this, we’re stuck up on those walls? Every single one of us. We’ll have no escape. Especially those on the inner wall—they’ll have nowhere to retreat but the inner court and burg.”

“I know. But if we keep up our efforts on the Deeping Wall, they’re just going to keep whittling us down to nothing. We’re too outnumbered. At least this way, we have a chance. All or nothing.”

Levi had lifted a distracted hand to Erwin’s face, brushing the wet hair from his eyes. It was stained red. He looked at his fingers when he moved them away, stained red too. “Right,” he said. “All or nothing.”

\--

The rangers loosed their volley and almost a dozen of the first titans fell, their napes pierced perfectly. More were spilling into the outer court from the Great Gates. The causeway was invisible beneath the writhing mass of them trying to push through. The rain hammered harder than ever, turning the outer court to a horror pit of enormous, shadowed bodies, the curves of heads, shoulders, and arms turned to glistening flame by the straining light of the oil lamps.

Some were still pounding the Deeping Wall with rocks, trying to breach it now that it was undefended. Erwin let them. If they made it into Helm’s Deep, they would never make it through the Narrows or into the slim passes of the Glittering Caves. And he had soldiers stationed on the high-cliffs above the Narrows to ambush any that tried.

“Outer Wall, prepare to fire!”

He waited, letting more titans spill into the outer court, stumbling over the bodies of their fallen brethren. When there were enough, he gave the order: “ _Fire!_ ”

There were more to hit now; twenty fell.

Now the inner wall. Now the outer wall. Erwin’s voice was already hoarse; it started to feel as if his throat was bleeding.

The hands of the youngest soldiers trembled, their arrows wavering, seldom finding their mark. Even then, their draw often wasn’t strong enough for the arrows to imbed themselves fully in the titans’ thick flesh. Erwin had spread them along the western side of the outer wall, where they had Helm’s Deep at their backs instead of the threat of more titans. For a brief moment his thoughts went back to his argument with Levi—he dearly wished he could send the lot of them marching out the rear-gate, down into the Glittering Caves with the elderly and youngest children. But they were his replacements for the soldiers torn away by giant hands from the mounted crossbows, for the archers plucked off their feet, tumbling down into the inner court to be crushed or jammed into gaping mouths. Not every child’s arrow hit, not every sword cut deep enough, but some did, and that was enough.  

“Commander Erwin, an Abnormal! Across the Deeping Stream!” 

Erwin forced his voice to travel one more time across the expanse of the inner court, putting Mike in charge. Then he followed the soldier who spoke down to the southernmost part of the outer wall.

He blinked through the rain, trying to put form and structure to what he was seeing: on the southern side of the Deeping Stream, a titan was scaling the Deeping Wall.

“Somebody bring me Levi!”

\--

“Togo hon dad, Levi. Dago hon.”

_Bring him down, Levi. Kill him._

He watched Levi throw himself over the edge of the Deeping Wall. If he had miscalculated, or if the Abnormal shifted too much, he would plummet to his death.

Clouds shifted, the delicate light of the moon thinning even further. If Levi fell, would Erwin even see it? Would he even hear the impact of his small body over the sound of the relentless rain?

But Levi landed on the Abnormal’s right shoulder and immediately dug a dagger into its neck to anchor himself, like a pickaxe in the ice. For a moment it appeared he might slip, but then he straigtened.

“Levi! How will you get back up?”

Levi turned to look up at him, and pointed to Helm’s Dike. The cliffs were difficult for clumsy, uncoordinated titans to climb. But even in the rain, Erwin didn’t doubt Levi could do it.  

He wanted to stay and witness the outcome, but he couldn’t. However, he did take a moment to survey the scene before him:

The simple enormity of the titan horde meant that even with so many forcing their way into the inner court, countless were still left spread out across the Deeping Coomb. Erwin allowed himself a single, breathless moment of hopelessness. Then he hardened his heart and let practicality take the reins again: they would tackle it a portion at a time, grinding the titan army down and down. They could win this. They would.

The few intelligent titans were easy enough to pinpoint, roaming the Coomb with more aim, their gaze passing over the different sections of the fortress with more purpose. They didn’t try to speak, and Erwin was thankful for that. He wondered if he would recognise any of their voices if they did.

They also didn’t seem to have much of a plan beyond ensuring the titans under their control attacked all available humans indefinitely. But they were an enormous mass of tireless behemoths, so they, unlike Erwin—unlike _Nile_ —cold afford to have a plan like that.

The real effort on Zeke’s behalf, Erwin knew, would be reserved for Gondor.

\--

He arrived back on the outer wall to find the slick blood under his feet thicker, the entrails and limbs spilled across the stones more numerous, the number of soldiers still firing arrows under Mike’s orders far slimmer. Steam rose incessantly from the outer court, the bodies of fallen titans disintegrating into nothing. It made them seem invincible: a body vanished only to reappear somewhere else, crushing another head.

Erwin resumed his position near the mounted crossbows and cut the nape from another hauled-down titan. A sudden outcry across the court made his head shoot up.

Mike. Mike’s feet lifting off the ground. Mike’s dagger thrusting again and again into the fingers that held him, fingers the width of his own arm. Dozens of arrows shooting unordered against the titan’s head, its shoulders, its arms, failing to fell it. 

“Mike!” Erwin shouted. “ _Mike!_ ”

Mike was near its mouth now, his efforts on its fingers abandoned, dagger raised in the hopes of slicing his way back out once he was in.

But it wasn’t going to swallow him whole. The titan started to bite down. It was so close to the inner wall that two of Mike’s rangers got a hold of Mike’s arms, hauling him back across the lip of the wall, even as the titan’s mouth was closing. Even from a distance Erwin could see the way Mike’s legs got shredded in the process, dragged between the titan’s teeth.

He saw Nile further along the outer wall. It was unfair. Unfair that Erwin had undoubtedly just witnessed one of his oldest friends losing the ability to walk—perhaps worse—for a man who would never thank him.

But now there was more shouting, more panic. An intelligent titan had just stepped into the outer court.

\--

It seemed the quickest way of ending the battle: kill the few intelligent titans so there would be none left to control the horde of mindless ones.

But that would mean releasing the mindless titans upon the lands of Rohan, free to roam, to attack more villages, to wage more destruction against people who couldn’t defend themselves. It would mean unarmed people encountering them in open land, no shelter to hide behind, no walls to lift them up to a titan’s height.

Soldiers were already training their arrows on the intelligent titan’s nape, waiting for someone to give the order. But if this one was killed, there were still two more out there. How many did they need to hold the titan horde together?

He would risk it. He gave the order, followed by: “If any more intelligent titans enter the inner court, _do not kill them!_ Defend yourself if they attack but _do not deliver a fatal blow!_ ”

Half a dozen arrows thudded into the centre of the intelligent titan’s nape, but it didn’t fall. It stumbled, shoving smaller titans out of its way, and its stumble brought it close to Erwin on the other side of the court.

A girl no older than sixteen stepped up, sword trembling in hand, too focused on the titan to realise that Erwin—or anyone—was near her. She was going to try and plunge her blade downward into the intelligent titan’s neck when it drew close enough.

“Wait—!” Erwin threw out his sword-arm to stop her. “Get behind me.”

The girl paused, body swaying with her sudden halt, eyes widening as she looked to Erwin. She lowered her sword—hands still trembling—and obeyed, ducking back behind him. The intelligent titan’s back was facing them at an angle. Erwin raised his own sword, lined it up, drew back so he could thrust downwards into the nape with all his force—

His arm was there, and then it was not there. Erwin was on the wall, and then he was falling.

 


	2. The Battle of the Hornburg: Aftermath

Wet skin hit Erwin from all sides and he reached out his left hand, trying to get some purchase. Something solid briefly halted his fall—a titan arm—and then something else, a leg. His helmet fell away along with a broken piece of his armour. He managed to hit the ground feet-first, but when he put his hands forward to catch himself, his right side kept going until bone and nerves and his shoulder and jaw were grinding against stone. He was a moment away from blacking out.

A huge foot kicked him, lifting him for a moment, and when he landed Erwin managed to get his left hand under himself, pushing himself to his feet. He was in a forest of thick, fleshy trees, the darkness almost absolute, any light blocked out by the massive canopy of bodies above. His head spun. Something was rolling over him in waves and he was pretty sure it was pain, but he was too dizzy to figure it out. Titan legs jostled him, miraculously avoided crushing him. They didn’t know he was down there. Brains and blood squelched between their toes, the bodies flattened on the floor of the outer court unrecognisable. Erwin steadied himself. He forced his way, buffeted continuously, until he reached the bottom of the inner wall and found some space there, pressed up flat against it.

He looked up. The wall was twenty metres high. Somebody was yelling orders up there: arrows were still whizzing, thudding into titans. And titans were still falling, their bodies steaming and crumbling. It was hot down there. Erwin could feel the heat pushing against his skin. His sword was gone. His right arm was gone. The intelligent titan was likely still alive.

He pressed the back of his head against the stone of the wall and took a deep breath. It made him choke. He considered his options. They hadn’t blocked the stairs because titans couldn’t fit up them, which meant he had six potential exit routes, including through the Great Gates. He straightened, using the wall to hold himself up. Six exit routes. Plenty.

Except when he tried to walk, the last of the dim light vanished, his vision swimming, and he fell back against the wall, his head hitting painfully against the stone.

He tried to walk again. This time he didn’t feel the stone under his head when he fell back against the wall again; he had already passed out.

\--

 “Thank shit. There you are.”

Erwin smiled to himself. He was dreaming of Levi. In his dream, there was no war.

In his dream, Levi was smiling at him, and it was an open and untampered smile, free of grimness or barely-concealed worries.

“Erwin? Shit. Here—”

Erwin’s head lolled. He blinked his eyes open, but the effect was the opposite of what it should have been: when they were closed he saw light, Levi; when they opened, he saw darkness.

“Erwin, come on, you’ve got to help me out here—”

In his dream, Levi was putting his arm around Erwin’s waist.

“Shit, you’re heavy. Come on, I can’t fight so we’ve gotta—”

In his dream, Levi was tugging at him playfully—no, painfully, half-dragging him, and all Erwin could smell was blood and innards . . . 

His eyes blinked open again, the world rushing back. “Levi?”

He was hard to see in the darkness. All Erwin could see was the outline of his nose, his jaw.

“Shh. We’re never going to make it across the outer court, so move your damn feet already. The stairs are on the other side of the inner wall.”

“What . . .”

“I said, _move your damn feet._ ”

Erwin did. He stumbled, supported by Levi, trusting that Levi was leading them both in the right direction. They moved with their backs pressed to the wall, Levi in the lead, Erwin pulled behind. Maybe he blacked out again, or maybe the light at the bottom of the inner court just lessened even more. Either way, it was all emptiness in his head.

Then there was space in front of them, lines of dark and light. Levi’s voice reached him from a distance, even though he could still feel his arm around his waist and his own arm around Levi’s shoulders: “Hey! _Hey!_ I’ve got a half-dead commander down here. Somebody give me a goddamn hand!”

\--

He was there when Erwin woke. Erwin squeezed his eyes tight shut and took a breath, opened them. “Levi.”

He was relieved. Levi was here, which meant Levi was alive.

“I gave up my bed to some half-dead lady,” Levi said. He was sitting in the chair in Erwin’s chamber. “Figured I’d make sure you, you know . . . woke up.”

Erwin sat up. “Did we win?”

“We did. Just.”

He let himself fall back a little again. They had won. Just. Rohan hadn’t fallen while he was . . . whatever he was. His right shoulder hurt and he remembered why, remembered falling forward on empty space, bare bone hitting stone. When he looked down it was all bandaged. He also remembered screaming in the early hours before dawn. “What happened?” he asked. “How’d you find me?”

Levi stretched, and then leant his chin on a fist, looking at Erwin. There was something like worry in his eyes, something like fear in respite. “Let me backtrack a little,” he said. “That shit-for-brains Abnormal on the wall decided we could both do with a little splash in the Deeping Stream. I had to climb a tree in the end to get at the bastard’s nape. Then I manage to get onto the causeway, through the Great Gates and back onto the outer wall without getting obliterated, only for some kid to tell me ‘Commander Erwin’s dead’ because the idiot fell into the outer court.”

Erwin’s brow furrowed. “So you didn’t find me by chance?” 

“Obviously not. Figured it’d take a little more than a tumble to make that stubborn heart of yours stop beating.”

Erwin let all this new information settle in. Levi hadn’t merely stumbled upon his unconscious body during his own journey through the outer court—he had willingly gone _back in._

For him.

The silver band Erwin wore—the silver band that matched Levi’s—was gone, presumably sunken down the gullet of a dead titan with the rest of his right hand. They had never married, and they had never worn their rings on their ring-fingers or even on their left hands, but they had worn them all the same.  

Still. They were at war. Death was expected. And Erwin had fallen into a court of riotous titans.

But Levi had gone back in _for him._

Erwin felt a surge of emotion that he couldn’t even name.

“How did it end?” he asked, because he needed more time to process what Levi had risked. 

Levi slumped down in his chair, a long breath escaping him. “With a lot of death Somebody told me you’d ordered that no more than one of the intelligent titans be killed, so I figured there was probably a good reason for that. You were hauled up against the inner side of the wall, bleeding yourself dry. We just kept going. Inner wall, outer wall, inner wall, outer wall. Then the last archer ran out of arrows. Five of the mounted crossbows were already destroyed. The rest kept firing. It was just like fighting on the Deeping Wall again, back to using swords. I thought it was all over. Then Hanji came.”

“Hanji? What did she do?”

“Wizard shit. I don’t know. You’ll have to talk to her yourself, I haven’t got the details yet. She did something to the Deeping Stream, made it flood. That wiped out a good pile of the titans that were still trying to get past the dike. I think she’d been fiddling around with nature up in the White Mountains. Took her damn time.”

“And then what?”

Levi shrugged. “We just fought on, taking down the last of them. Then it was just those two intelligent titans left. I killed them both. Could have been some of our own, for all I know . . . Anyway, you’ll see the reports. Not many soldiers left here.” Levi hesitated. “Mike died. Did you know?”

Erwin’s head filled with the sight of Mike being dragged from a titan’s mouth, his legs shredded. He shut his eyes. His chest tightened. “No. I didn’t know that.”

“I’m sorry. He seemed . . .” Levi trailed off.

Erwin understood. He knew Mike better than Levi ever would now.

A quiet knock sounded at the door, and a young soldier entered when Erwin called them. They passed a scroll into his hands, saying, “From Commander Nile. He thought you might like to see.” Then they were gone again.

“How is Nile?” Erwin asked Levi. He struggled to unfurl the scroll one-handed. Levi got up to help him.

“Fine, as far as I know. Last I saw him, he was cutting off a titan’s hand on the outer wall. Hope he naped the thing. I heard him when it was over. Made a little victory speech. Didn’t feel right though, not with the number of limbs scattered around.”

Erwin skimmed over the scroll. It was a report of the battle. Levi had sat himself on the edge of the bed, his shoulder pressed to Erwin’s. “Thirty-one children died,” Erwin said.

“But Rohan survived.”

“Thirty-one.”

“This is war,” Levi said. “Age doesn’t render you exempt from its cruelty.”

Levi had understood this the day before, even as he had been arguing with Erwin in the armoury. Both had known it, but only Erwin had accepted it. Now, it seemed Levi had accepted it, too. It pained Erwin, in a way—like Levi had lost something in the battle.

He didn’t say anything. 

Levi repeated himself. “Rohan survived.” 

“So what happened after?”

Levi let the scroll roll closed again. He slid his hand into Erwin’s. “For starters, I got you some medical attention before you bled out. Then we carried in the injured. The dead are . . .” He trailed off again.

_The dead are mashed into the stonework._

“I joined a patrol to the Glittering Caves to make sure no titans had made it past the Deeping Wall,” Levi added. “I only got back a couple of hours ago.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Erwin said quietly. _Thirty-one._ “These aren’t your people. Fighting for them was enough.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little redundant to say that after I saved their asses last night? They’re not my people, but they’re people. I wasn’t going to risk more dying—”

“Levi.”

“What?”

The morning light was strengthening in the room, bringing out the deep shadows around Levi’s eyes. “Rest now. Please?”

Levi stopped, a longer outburst still poised on his tongue. But he yielded. “Fine. But it’s not like I’m going to get much rest out there anyway. The injured are . . . distracting.”

“Rest in here.” Erwin tried to move over, giving Levi more space.

“Wait, wait—” Levi grabbed his arm, stopping him, because the effort of trying to shift sideways was clearly setting Erwin’s entire right side on fire. “I can fit here.” He tucked himself in against Erwin, his head resting on his shoulder. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen your face, have you?” he asked.

“No. But I can feel it. Is it bad?”

Levi shifted, rising as if to find something—a mirror.

Erwin had his left arm around him and he tightened his hold, stopping him. “It can wait. Get some sleep.”

“It’s hypocritical,” Levi said.

“What is?”

“You. Telling me to rest. When you lost an arm last night and all I did was injure my ank—”

Erwin frowned. “You injured your ankle?”

“Don’t use that tone. You can’t say that as if it’s terrible when a titan bit your arm off less than a day ago.”

Erwin watched the gentle rise and fall of Levi’s chest. _A living thing._ He wasn’t sure why that always surprised him about Levi. Maybe because he seemed impossible. “How bad is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“A sprain?”

Levi hesitated. “Maybe a fracture.”

“When did you do it? In the caves?”

Levi sighed. “When I landed on that Abnormal. I couldn’t see the bastard shift a little in the dark.”

Erwin retraced Levi’s footsteps in his head. Into the Deeping Stream. Out again. Up a tree. Down. Up Helm’s Dike. Across the Hornrock. Up onto the causeway. Through the Great Gates, along the edge of the outer court, up the steps. Back down the steps. Back around the outer court. Dragging Erwin. Up more steps. Fighting on the inner wall. Killing two intelligent titans. Getting help for Erwin. Journeying to the Glittering Caves and back. 

“It’s nothing,” Levi repeated, before Erwin could say anything. “I’m going to get some sleep now. Don’t disturb me. Goodnight, Erwin.”

Erwin waited until Levi had stilled, head tucked in against Erwin’s chest now to block out the morning light. “Goodnight, Levi.”

\--

“Incredible!”

“Hanji.”

“I knew you would figure something out!”

“Hanji.”

“Pity you had to kill them _all_ though . . .”

“ _Hanji._ ”

Hanji’s head shot up. “Hmm? What?”

She was sitting on the end of Erwin’s bed. Levi was in a chair nearby.

“I think it’s time to get ready,” Erwin said.

“Right. Sorry. Levi, fetch his boots.”

Together, Hanji and Levi helped Erwin get his boots on, tugged a tunic down over him, and wrapped a cloak around his shoulders. Levi put out his right arm for Erwin to link his left with and Hanji walked on Erwin’s right, ready to catch him if he stumbled. He had lost a lot of blood. He was still pale as bone. He was determined not to miss their farewell.

\--

The Rangers of the North bore Mike’s body on a bier. The rest of the rangers who perished in the battle had already been buried north of the Hornburg, at the base of one of the Thrihyrne mountains.  But Mike’s body would be carried through the Gap of Rohan and past the Fords of Isen, and then sent downriver in a boat. The Isen would carry him to the Sea of Belegaer. 

They set the bier on the ground when Erwin approached, and he lowered himself down unsteadily, using Levi to help himself balance. A shroud lay over Mike from his neck to his feet, covering his ruined legs. And his ruined chest, too, apparently: in the end, he had died defending one of his own as they were trying to pull him to safety.

Erwin put a hand over Mike’s eyelids, as if he were closing them. His chest tightened again. “Go peacefully, Mike.”

\--

“You’re sure?” Erwin asked. “Your witness, they weren’t mistaken?”

Hanji sighed. “Yes, Erwin, I’m sure. You know what it means for them both. And you’re going to have to break the news to Levi.”

“. . . I know.”

\--

Erwin and Levi stood upon the outer wall, looking out across the Deeping Coomb. The Deeping Stream rushed by at the base of the Hornrock, its waters returned to normal now and free of blood and gore; all the bodies had been buried, and the rains had washed the remnants away.

Hanji had left, rushing off on some new calling. She had explained to Erwin what she had done, freeing the way in the mountains for the stream to swell, and turning it to a torrent with an incantation.

And Nile had thanked him. He had even apologised to him. And he had received a severe reproach from Levi in reply. In his couple-thousand years of living, Erwin wasn’t sure he had ever heard an elf utter the phrase “worm-of-the-earth shit-brained sweat-stained _swine_ ” before.

“What are you thinking about?” Levi asked. His hand went to Erwin’s face, touching the edge of one of the abrasions that marked his skin from his shoulder to his cheekbone.

Erwin took his hand and kissed it. “You. Telling off Nile. You’re quite the wordsmith.”

“He’ll recover.” Levi turned his head towards the setting sun, its red fingers catching against the triple peaks of the Thrihyrne. “How are you feeling?”

He was feeling like he’d had his arm chewed off and then fallen off a twenty-metre high wall two days ago. “Better. Levi, I’ve been meaning to ask. Why’d you go back for me?”

“What kind of a shitty question is that?”

“You didn’t even know I was alive.”

Levi turned to him. The sunset framed him in soft orange light. “I went back because you’re you.”

Erwin’s brow furrowed. He understood that Levi loved him. He didn’t understand that Levi loved him enough to try and find his likely-dead body amidst a horde of titans and human remains in the middle of a battle.

Levi slid the silver band off the index finger of his own right hand and moved it to the index finger of his left. “We’ll get a new one for you,” he said, taking Erwin’s left hand and playing with his fingers. “Though I suppose—we’re not going home anytime soon, are we?”

Erwin leant back against one of the merlons of the wall. “We’re not.”

“What have you found out?”

“That Zeke already has another army marching on Minas Tirith, despite our victory here. The king of Rohan has requested that, should Gondor call for aid, I act as commander-in-chief to the Rohirrim.”

Levi looked at him for a moment. “There’s something else.”

Erwin closed his eyes. He didn’t want to tell him. In that moment, he hated that Levi could read him so well.

“Spit it out,” Levi said.

“Fine. Listen. I talked to Hanji before she left. Somebody had told her . . . they saw the titan horde, the one that attacked your patrol when you were escorting Eren and his companions. They were travelling south-east. They carried two elves with them.”

The last of the warm light disappeared, sending Levi into grey shadow. “No,” he said.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re saying . . .”

“I just want you to be prepared. If we march to Gondor, the intelligent titans leading the army could—”

“What did they look like?” Levi interrupted. His face was stricken. “The intelligent titans we killed here, what did they look like? I can’t remember— I didn’t think— _Erwin._ What the hell did they look like?”

“It wasn’t them,” Erwin said softly. He had already thought it over. Whoever it was that the titans had taken from Levi’s patrol, they hadn’t become the intelligent titans leading the army at the Hornburg. He was sure of it. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

Levi came to him, putting his face against Erwin’s chest and wrapping his arms around him. His body shuddered. Erwin held him close.

“I don’t care if Gondor calls for aid or not,” Levi murmured. “We’re going either way. We’re ending this. Who gives a damn about some shitty Ring? I’ll kill Zeke myself.” 

Erwin was tired. He was tired of seeing innocents die, of children taking up swords. He was tired of the stench of titans and of his intimate knowledge of what human bodies smelled like when they were torn apart. Most of all, he was tired of watching Levi forced to grieve, over and over, for the people the titans took from him. “We’re ending this,” he agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The battles of the Pelennor Fields and of the Black Gates to follow.


End file.
